whole course of my life, and now, if so be the will of God, shall dye in it: and I had resolved through God's grace assisting me to have dyed so, though at a stake.
"And whereas that religion of the Church of England taught me the doctrine of nonresistance and passive obedience, which 'I have accordingly inculcated upon others, and which I took to be the distinguishing character of the Church of England, I adhere no less firmly and steadfastly to that, and in consequence of it, have incurred a suspension from the exercise of my office and expected a deprivation. I find in so doing much inward satisfaction, and if the Oath had been tendered at the peril of my life, I could only have obeyed by suffering.
"I desire you my worthy friends and brethren, to bear witness of this upon occasion, and to believe it, as the words of a dying man, and who is now engaged in the most sacred and solemn act of conversing with God in this world, and may, for ought he knows to the contrary, appear with these very words in his mouth at the dreadful tribunal: "Manu propria Subscripsi,"
The writer afterwards remarks, "I shall not doubt to say, that those who cannot take the Oath, yet wish better to their Majesties than these their violent adversaries, and in the end will prove better subjects. Their Majesties are the two persons in the world, whose reign over them, their interest and inclination oblige them most to desire, and nothing but con-
- ↑ Defence, &c. pp. 10, 11. Kettlewell's Life, 87, 88.
